Following birth of a child it is important to develop a paternal bond with the infant to promote a state of comfort and wellbeing. The security provided to the infant at this early stage can have positive lasting effects throughout their life. To this end, parents often spend substantial amounts of time holding their infant, both during the day and late into the night, to generate bonding and promote a calming effect. However, while bonding is comforting for both parents and infant, it is difficult for parents, particular the mother, to return to everyday life and continue with tasks previously performed before birth. For example, common tasks such as preparing meals, grocery shopping, cleaning, working from home, assisting other children, or otherwise, become increasingly difficult. The increase in commitments leaves the parents either sacrificing bonding time with their infant or exchanging the infant between one another. This problem is particularly exaggerated with single parents or families having a parent spending substantial amounts of time away from home.
Parents and manufacturers of childcare products have attempted to provide means for maintaining continual bonding with an infant but also allow for the resuming of everyday tasks. In one attempt, individuals have utilized long blankets, towels, or the like, to wrap around their body, over their clothing, to form a pocket for receiving and maintaining an infant against their body. Such devices provide a blanket having a length of approximately 15 to 20 feet with detailed instructions on wrapping procedures for forming a pocket for receiving a baby. Unfortunately, the complexity of the wrapping has resulted in complex instructions and the creation of many online videos for teaching individuals how to use the product. As shown in the videos, the infant must be placed down during the initial wrapping. After the initial wrapping, the user places the infant in a partial pocket and awkwardly attempts to continue to wrap the infant while carefully maintaining pressure against the infant to prevent dropping. After several minutes, the infant is finally secured against the wearer, albeit against the wearer's clothing. However, it has been discovered that while utilizing the device, the wrapping has a propensity to continuously loosen requiring the wearer to adjust and tighten ends of the wrappings. Accordingly, the device is both complex to use and requires continual maintenance.
Many other manufacturers of child care products have also provided devices for supporting infants. Most, if not all, of such devices provide externally worn carriers that include various straps, buckles, clasps, frames, or otherwise, that can be uncomfortable to wear over time. In certain configurations, such as slings, the devices are not ergonomically correct and place excessive strain on the back, shoulder and other body parts of the wearer. Also, many of these devices are designed to be utilized with dressed infants since they are worn externally to wearer of the device.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need to provide improved infant carrying devices that are easy to use, comfortable to wear and safe for the infant during placement or removal of the device.